Rajesh Bhasin exits Skoda Auto, Czech brand without head of sales and marketing again

Just a few weeks back, marketing head Rahul Pansare had moved out to join Stellantis India and now the head of sales has left too. However, Petr Janeba, the new brand director who is on a mission to restructure Skoda’s brand operations in India is confident of meeting sales targets despite exits.

By Ketan Thakkar

08 Apr 2024

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The top deck at Skoda Auto India is witnessing a shuffle yet again. The head of sales of the Czech brand - Rajesh Bhasin has exited the company within just 9 months of joining.

Bhasin joins Rahul Pansare – the head of marketing who also stepped down several weeks back – creating a void of two critical functions of sales and marketing at the company. Pansare too, had a short stint of less than 6-9 months at Skoda, before he went back to Stellantis Group in India.

The exits of both Bhasin and Pansare happen at a time when Skoda Auto is on the verge of rolling out the new customer interface or CI at its dealerships with the new Skoda logo and signages.

Just a few months ago, Skoda Auto India saw the new brand director Petr Janeba taking charge of the operations.

Without commenting on the exits of Bhasin or Pansare, Petr Janeba – Brand Director for Skoda in India, told Autocar Professional that the company has a long-term strategy for India, which is reflected in its commitment towards building the brand, introducing new products, and expanding the dealer footprint.

“With the compact SUV that we will launch next year, we will more than double our sales volumes in India, and add another 100 customer touchpoints to get closer to customers and make the Škoda brand more accessible across the country,” he added.

On the electrification front too, Janeba says the company is serious about it and is readying the strategy.

“Our EV strategy, which will start with FBUs, then parts and components (assembly), and eventually local production, depending on how the market matures and the ecosystem develops,” added Janeba.

Despite frequent changes in the top deck, the brand director is confident that the Škoda Next Level of efficiencies, structure, processes, tools, dealer network growth in volume, quality and customer satisfaction measures are in place and running effectively to support its (future) targets.

The company has seen its monthly volumes go down from 4500 units to about 2500 units in 2024.

In 2023 – Skoda Auto had a similar churn at the top – with the then-heads of sales and marketing Ajay Raghuvanshi and Tarun Jha exiting the company under Petr Solc – the brand director.